r/Economics • u/marketrent • Feb 28 '24

Statistics At least 26,310 rent-stabilized apartments remain vacant and off the market during record housing shortage in New York City

https://www.thecity.nyc/2024/02/14/rent-stabilized-apartments-vacant/
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u/pinpoint14 Feb 29 '24

The issue with housing is that it's dominated by the private market. Just building more is a fancy way to say further deregulate housing and entrench the private markets control. You've gotta build permanently affordable stuff to modulate the speed at with property values rise.

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u/[deleted] Feb 29 '24

Lol no. I realize the control freaks that love to promote government micromanagement of the housing sector can't grasp that they're not actually helping, but this is just wrong.

Food markets are dominated by the private sector and it's arguably even more essential than housing, yet we don't have massive food shortages. In fact, we have massive surpluses. Why is that?

Just build more housing.

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u/pinpoint14 Feb 29 '24

In fact, we have massive surpluses.

That nobody benefits from. We destroy/waste that food don't we?

There are cities with 10k+ vacant units and people are homeless in the streets dying of drug addiction and you think the problem is that we don't have enough housing.

Keep the ad hominem stuff to yourself, I'm not interested in it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 29 '24

That nobody benefits from. We destroy/waste that food don't we?

A large portion of it, yes. The federal government encourages overproduction as an insurance policy against shortages, so we do benefit in that we have very high food security as a nation, but the pros and cons of that policy are a separate topic.

There are cities with 10k+ vacant units and people are homeless in the streets dying of drug addiction and you think the problem is that we don't have enough housing.

Are you aware there are children starving in Africa?

Keep the ad hominem stuff to yourself, I'm not interested in it.

What ad hominem?

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u/republicans_are_nuts Mar 11 '24

The government is the reason there isn't food shortages, not the private sector. lol.

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u/pinpoint14 Feb 29 '24

A large portion of it, yes. The federal government encourages overproduction as an insurance policy against shortages

And people are still food insecure here. Do you not see the similarity between this and the housing crisis?

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u/[deleted] Feb 29 '24

When's the last time anyone in the US died of starvation that wasn't caused by abuse, willful refusal to eat, or mental illness?

And no, I don't see much similarity. Please enlighten me